China Watch Vol. 3, No. 22, August 2023
Using New Industrialization to Promote Chinese Modernization
Huang Qunhui
The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) considers the basic realization of the new industrialization as an important goal of fundamentally realizing socialist modernization by 2035; it proposes promoting new-type industrialization and accelerating the construction of a manufacturing power, a quality power, an aerospace power, a transportation power, a network power, and a digital China. Industrialization is the basic premise, the driving force, and the core meaning of modernization. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and especially since the reform and opening-up of the 1980s, we have spent decades completing an industrialization process that took the Western developed countries centuries to accomplish, and have created a miracle of rapid economic development and long-term social stability. Entering the new era, we have significantly accelerated the pace of new-type industrialization, implemented the strategy to become a “manufacturing power,” and have continuously promoted “stronger, better, and bigger” through the real economy, thus providing a strong material foundation and technical support for socialist modernization.
The world today is undergoing a period of major change and accelerated evolution, the likes of which have not occurred for a century: a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation deep in development; global industrial chains, supply chains, and value chains undergoing profound adjustment; a steady intensification among the major powers in the competition over the global distribution of manufacturing, as well as game-playing among them over advanced manufacturing technology; and the global patterns and technical content of industrialization are undergoing profound change. China has embarked on a new journey to fully build a modern socialist country and achieve the second Centenary Goal (i.e., building China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful from 2035 through the middle of this century). It is the central task of the CPC to comprehensively promote the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization. On this new journey, the new industrialization process needs to center around the modernization of China’s huge population, the coordination of its material and spiritual civilization, the common prosperity for all people, and the harmonious coexistence between man and nature—the Chinese modernization of peaceful development. The theoretical content and practice of Chinese modernization on the road of peaceful development require further advancement. In the face of the new international situation and new task requirements, the deepening of the new industrialization requires us to grasp the following principles and directions.
First, to deepen the new industrialization, we must focus on grasping the advanced nature of technology, conform to the trends of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, and promote Chinese modernization with the focus on building China into a manufacturing power.
Industrialization and modernization are based on the premise, the driving force, and the symbols of the rise, spread, and application of modern science and technology. The world today is in a period of accelerated expansion of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. Technological innovation around the globe is unprecedentedly intensive and dynamic. Emerging technologies such as new-generation information technology, new energy, new materials, bioengineering, and green, low-carbon technologies are reshaping the global technology landscape, economic structure, and the competition pattern among the great powers. To become a powerful modern country, China needs to follow the general laws of industrialization and modernization, conform to the general trends of the new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation, adhere to the core position of innovation in China’s overall modernization, and build strength in science and technology by achieving a high level of self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology, so that it becomes a major world center for scientific and technological innovation. In today’s world, scientific research, technological innovation, and industrial application are closely integrated, so the construction of a technologically powerful country is inseparable from the construction of a manufacturing powerhouse. Manufacturing is the industry with the most active technological innovation activities, the most abundant scientific and technological innovation achievements, the most concentrated application of technological innovation, and the strongest spillover effect of technological innovation. It is the main battlefield of technological innovation. China is already the world’s largest manufacturing country in terms of output, but it is large but not strong. Its technological innovation capabilities and basic manufacturing capabilities are not yet strong. Some core technologies are still controlled by others, and the overall technological level still needs to be improved. According to a report from the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2019, among China’s 26 types of representative manufacturing industries, five categories are leaders in terms of manufacturing technology, six have advanced technology, ten have large technology gaps, and five have very large technology gaps. The key to deepening new industrialization is promoting the high-end, digital, green, and integrated development of manufacturing through scientific and technological innovation, and continuing to promote the building of China as a manufacturing power.
Specifically, with regard to improving technological advancement and deepening the new industrial process, the following must be done:
- Give full play to the advantages of the new nationwide system under the conditions of a socialist market economy; strengthen the supply of high-level independent technological elements; promote key core technology research projects in the fields of new-generation information technology, biotechnology, new energy, and new materials; make breakthroughs in key common technologies, cutting-edge and leading technologies, etc.; and look ahead to plan for technologies such as brain-like intelligence, quantum information, gene technology, future networks, deep-sea and aerospace development, hydrogen energy, and energy storage.
- Actively explore effective investment mechanisms; increase investment in new infrastructure construction such as information infrastructure, integrated infrastructure, and innovative infrastructure, especially to promote the construction and improvement of major scientific and technological infrastructure, science and education infrastructure, and industrial technology innovation infrastructure; build as soon as possible an innovative infrastructure system with complete layout, advanced technology, efficient operation, and strong support.
- Establish and improve an industrial basic capability evaluation system; accelerate the implementation of basic reengineering projects in industry for core basic parts (components), advanced basic technology, key basic materials, and industrial technology bases, focusing on the areas of large aircraft, aeroengines, gas turbines, electric energy equipment, ships and marine engineering equipment, industrial tools, high-end medical equipment, modern agricultural machinery and equipment, and so on; and actively promote major technical equipment research projects, striving to make breakthroughs on a batch of innovative and iconic equipment.
- Accelerate the development of digital technology, using digital technology to empower the integration of manufacturing and service industries, accelerate the deep integration of modern services industries, advanced manufacturing, and modern agriculture; and promote digital industrialization and industrial digitization.
- Actively promote the innovation and development of green technology; implement green manufacturing projects; accelerate the green transformation and upgrading of manufacturing sector; and actively build and improve the development of green products, the construction of green factories, the development of green parks, and create green manufacturing systems centered around green supply chains.
Second, to deepen the new industrialization, we must focus on grasping strategic synergy, while at the same time promoting new industrialization, urbanization, informatization, and agricultural modernization; we must promote Chinese modernization, in which material and spiritual civilization are coordinated, and man and nature live in harmony.
In Chinese modernization, material civilization and spiritual civilization are coordinated, which means that it not only realizes people’s material prosperity, but also their spiritual prosperity. The new industrialization thus needs to contribute to the continuous enrichment of the people’s spiritual and cultural life while it lays a solid modern material and technological foundation for their lives. The new industrialization strategy should be coordinated with social and cultural modernization strategies, and the strategy for building manufacturing power should be coordinated with cultural power strategy. The new industrialization should revolve around the people’s overall material and cultural needs as well as their overall development. In Chinese modernization, man and nature live in harmony, meaning that as it seeks human development and modernization, it also respects, conforms to, and protects nature, following the laws of natural development. This means that the traditional pathway of industrialization—“pollute first and govern later”—must be completely abandoned. The new industrialization strategy must be coordinated with the sustainable development strategy and the construction of a beautiful China, ensuring that human modernization is compatible with the evolution of the natural environment.
As the overall strategic arrangement for Chinese modernization, the new industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization will be basically realized by 2035. But generally speaking, the development of the “four new modernizations” has been unbalanced and uncoordinated.
In the relationship between industrialization and informatization, new infrastructure-building needs to be strengthened, and the depth of the integration among the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, and the real economy also needs to be strengthened. The areas of software, high-performance chips, and so on still seriously lag behind the world’s advanced level, and the level of manufacturing informatization and intelligent manufacturing capability needs to be improved.
Benign interaction in the relationship between industrialization and urbanization has not yet been fully developed. The level of urbanization generally lags behind the level of industrialization, and the income gap between urban and rural areas is large. Industrial and urban development neither “keep pace with each other in time,” nor do they “interact with each in space.” The quality of people-centered urbanization needs to be improved; the level of urbanization in the agricultural migrant population is still low; and there is still plenty of room for development in urban agglomerations and urban circles.
As for industrialization and agricultural modernization, there is an insufficient level of coordination in their development, and agricultural modernization is still a weak point restricting China’s overall modernization process. Specifically, the levels of mechanization, scientification, water conservancy, electrification, greening, informatization, and industrialization in agriculture are incompatible with China’s overall modernization stage.
All of these things mean that in order to basically realize the “new four modernizations” required for Chinese modernization by 2035, we must pay attention to the synergies of the new industrialization strategy. On the one hand, it is necessary to pay attention to the synergy among the strategies for building a strong manufacturing country, for a strongly networked country, and for a digital China. On the other hand, it is necessary to pay attention to the coordination among the three major strategies of new industrialization, new urbanization, and of comprehensively promoting rural revitalization. Realizing these three strategic synergies requires breaking down the institutional barriers among industries and regions to enable urban-rural integration, and promoting the integrated development among urban and rural areas, regions, and industries.
Third, to deepen the new type of industrialization, we must focus on grasping the inclusiveness of the process, based on the basic national conditions of a huge population, and promote Chinese modernization, of which an essential feature is common prosperity for all people.
Chinese modernization is the modernization of a huge population, and common prosperity for all people is an essential feature of it. One of China’s basic national conditions is its huge population, and common prosperity for all is an essential requirement of socialist modernization. Chinese modernization must achieve the common prosperity given this basic national condition, and enabling more than 1.4 billion people to advance together toward a materially and spiritually rich modern society would be a great accomplishment unprecedented in human history. The task is very arduous and complicated. Using the new industrialization to promote Chinese modernization must not only meet the “conditional constraints” of a huge population, but also meet the “objective function” of realizing the common prosperity of all people. This requires us pay attention to the inclusiveness of the process. From a global perspective, industrialization in every country is a development process in pursuit of prosperity, but the new Chinese industrialization pursues common prosperity for all people. It is necessary to make the fruits of industrialization benefit everyone more equitably and to resolutely put an end to polarization. It is necessary to combine organically the long-term historical process of realizing common prosperity with the new industrialization process. It is exactly as General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “We cannot wait for modernization to solve the common prosperity problem, but we must always take meeting the people’s new expectations for a better life as the starting point and endpoint of development, and to continue promoting Chinese-style modernization in order to solve this problem step by step.”
China’s overall industrialization process has entered the late stage, and the advantage of a low-cost labor supply from a huge population is gradually shifting to the advantage of ultra-large-scale market demand formed by huge population resources. Thus the new industrialization strategy needs to turn away from the traditional industrialization pathway, which was based on low-cost comparative advantages, and turn toward the new pathway, which is based on the advantages of technological innovation. The essential feature of building a new pattern of development consists precisely of the requirement of transforming China’s ultra-large-scale market advantage into a high-level independent innovation advantage. However, in the process of promoting the new industrialization and pursuing technological advancement, we must pay attention to the inclusiveness of the industrialization process. Since the 1980s, following the obvious trends of digitalization, economic globalization, and de-manufacturing, most of the developed countries have shown a trend of income gaps that widen year by year. China’s industrialization process, now in its late stage, is also showing the trends of digitalization, economic globalization, and de-manufacturing. Technological upgrading and transformation will inevitably bring about large-scale changes in employment, and the widening income gap that results may also become more serious—which even more necessitates the enhanced emphasis in the new industrialization process on inclusiveness. The new industrialization must be innovation-driven, sustainable, and inclusive. To this end, we must pay great attention, on the one hand, to avoiding the “polarization effect” in the industrialization process. Technological innovation must take social responsibility into consideration, and while we promote advanced manufacturing, digital transformation, and upgrading, we must also pay attention to bridging the “digital divide” so that more people participate in the new industrialization process. On the other hand, it is necessary to improve the distribution system continuously, insist on the core idea of distribution according to work, and build a coordinated system of primary distribution, redistribution, and third distribution. Improving the inclusiveness of the new industrialization process through an improved distribution system will ensure that everyone can share the fruits of the new industrialization.
Fourth, to deepen the new type of industrialization, we must put emphasis on grasping industrial security, coordinating development and security policies, and promoting Chinese modernization on the road of peaceful development.
Chinese modernization follows the path of peaceful development. In the economic globalization context, China actively promotes opening up to the outside world and holds high the banner of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win results while actively promoting its own modernization process; it also uses it own modernization to better maintain world peace and development. Since reform and opening up, China’s rapid industrialization has benefited from economic globalization, and has also made important contributions to global economic development and human progress. During the East Asian financial crisis of 1998, the world financial crisis in 2008, and when the novel coronavirus pandemic was having a huge impact on the world economy, China—though a latecomer country—gave full play to its role as an economic ballast.
The world today has entered a new period of turmoil and change. The pandemic has had a far-reaching impact, an anti-globalization trend is on the rise, unilateralism and protectionism have increased significantly, world economic revival has been weak, local conflicts and turmoil are frequent, and global problems are intensifying. Even so, we will adhere to the basic state policy of opening up the outside world, firmly pursue a mutually beneficial and win-win opening strategy, adhere to the correct direction of economic globalization, continue to provide the world with new opportunities through China’s new development, promote the construction of an open world economy, and bring better benefits to people of all countries. In the future this will require the deepening of the new industrialization process in order to coordinate the relationship between development and security, and the active exploration of ways to effectively improve the national industrial security level and improve the resilience of industrial and supply chains under the open economic system.
The author is Director and Researcher of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Translated by Thomas E. Smith